Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
A Righteous Gentile vs. The Third Reich
By Eric Metaxas. Thomas Nelson. 608 pages. £19.99
ISBN 978 1 595 552 464
How should the church react when the state seeks to take away the liberties of others? Or when the state impinges on the freedom of churches to preach the truths of the gospel? These are the questions which lie at the heart of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, a biography by Eric Metaxas.
I confess that before embarking on this book I knew very little about Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer ministered as a pastor and theological educator in Germany during the turbulent years between the world wars. Leaderless democracy — in the form of the Weimar republic — had been imposed on Germany by the victors of WWI, along with harsh reparations and prohibitions. A resulting desire for strong leadership and the restoration of national pride played a large part in the (legal, democratic) rise to power of Adolf Hitler.
Bonhoeffer developed into a brilliant theologian following the neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth rather than the theological liberalism which prevailed in the academy. Some today might rightly question some aspects of his theology; he, like us, was a product of his time. Partly through the influence of his scientist father, Bonhoeffer was gifted with a deep sense of the power of ideas. Metaxas writes: ‘For Bonhoeffer, ideas and beliefs were nothing if they did not relate to the world of reality outside one’s mind’ (p.53). Connected to this, God also gave him an amazing prophetic gift: he was able to anticipate the direction society was moving in, and the likely long-term implications.
Significance
Bonhoeffer's ministry was varied. As well as playing a key part in church politics for a number of years, he served as a lecturer in Berlin, a pastor in Barcelona and London, and a theological educator in various places around Germany. Having joined a failed plot to assassinate Hitler, he was imprisoned in 1943 and executed in 1945, just weeks before the end of the war.
Bonhoeffer's significance in the history of the church mirrors the rise of the Nazis from minority ruling party to world war-mongers. I found it truly terrifying to observe again how a ‘civilised Westernised state’ could be taken over in this way in just a few years. As an exercise in accumulating raw power, Hitler's approach was quite simply brilliant — manipulating public opinion to bring about his own agenda, complimenting the church when it suited him, while all the time despising the ‘weakness’ of Christianity and biding his time before seeking to destroy the church altogether.
The book explores in detail one of the greatest tragedies of that period of history, a tragedy which greatly exercised Bonhoeffer. This was the way in which the church was divided, and rendered virtually impotent. Two issues lay at the heart of this crisis.
1. Reconcile the irreconcilable?
The first was the willingness of some — the ‘German Christians’ — to twist the teaching of Scripture to accommodate Nazi policy: in particular as regards their attitude to the Jews. Within months of coming to power, the Nazis introduced ‘the Aryan paragraph’ — resulting in the insistence that government employees must be of Aryan stock (pp.150-151). The German Christians went to extraordinary lengths to justify the Nazis' position: they removed the OT, and ‘quoted NT passages out of context and twisted the meaning to suit their anti-Semitic agenda’ (p.172).
The lesson, of course, is that theological liberalism will do whatever it can to accommodate what the state or public opinion wants it to say — whether that is moving the state in a more repressive or ‘progressive’ direction. This tendency is particularly acute for those in the established church. An established church is fine when there is a common opponent — as was the case during the Reformation. But the dynamic becomes very different when the state tries to coerce or influence the church. It was out of this dilemma that, in 1934, the Barmen declaration was made, and the (theologically orthodox) Confessing Church was born.
2. Lutheran doctrine of the state
However, even the Confessing Church struggled to counter the threat of the Nazis — this time because of a failure to define the limits of the state. For example, in 1935 the Nuremberg laws were announced — among other things forbidding marriages of Jews to German citizens (pp.279-280). Metaxas tells us that Bonhoeffer saw an opportunity to speak out — ‘but the Confessing Church was again slow to act. It was guilty of the typically Lutheran error of confining itself to the narrow sphere of how church and state were related’ (p. 280). Luther was highly respected as the spiritual father of Christians in Germany, but Bonhoeffer felt that Luther had overemphasised Romans 13.1-5, in the sense that he had ‘never been forced to deal with the boundaries of the scriptural idea of obedience to worldly authorities’ (p.281).
Bonhoeffer took a very different approach to the role of the church in an unjust state. He argued that, while the state is given authority by God for the preservation of order, the church has a role to ‘continually ask the state whether its action can be justified as legitimate action of the state, i.e. as action which leads to law and order, and not to lawlessness and disorder’ — or indeed ‘excessive law and order’ (p.153). In particular, the church must reject any attempt by the state to ‘deprive Christian preaching and Christian faith... of their rights’ — precisely because of the church's ‘better knowledge of the state and of the limitations of its actions. The state which endangers the Christian proclamation negates itself’ (p.153). Indeed, part of Hitler's agenda was to change the churches, so that they were his agents in carrying out his agenda. The church must always resist this attempt.
Beyond this questioning of the state, Bonhoeffer advocated two further actions on the part of the church: aiding the victims of state action (including those who don't belong to the Christian community — in this case, the Jews); and, when necessary – when the church sees its very existence threatened — putting a spoke in the wheel to stop the vehicle of state (which, for Bonhoeffer, included the assassination attempt on Hitler) (p.154).
In the end, Bonhoeffer lost faith even in the Confessing Church. Rather than engaging in church politics, he devoted himself to a life of discipling and training new pastors, pastors who would have the same commitments he himself had, many of whom would ultimately end up in prison or sent to their deaths on the front line. When war started and his role was declared illegal, he became an official spy working for the Abwehr, and unofficially joined a plot to assassinate Hitler. Until, that is, Bonhoeffer himself ended up in prison and was executed.
Bonhoeffer in the 21st century
If he were with us today, what would Bonhoeffer have to say to the churches of Britain? Probably something along these lines: ‘Be united. Stand for the truth before it's too late. Don't give more ground to the state than the Bible permits. Keep questioning the state, and holding it to account. Care for the persecuted (Christian and non-Christian). Train more people who will do the same’.
Where would Bonhoeffer draw ‘the line in the sand’ as regards our current struggles? He'd probably say we've already passed it. But he'd certainly encourage us to keep making a stand, and to keep taking action — remembering that a church divided is a church destroyed, and a church which fails to engage with the issues of the day is a church irrelevant.
In the final analysis, Bonhoeffer would say that if truth is truth, it is worth dying for. He had a clear sense very early in his ministry that he would have to pay the ultimate price. And yet he continued — boldly, confidently — towards his destiny. He regretted nothing. And here we are, discussing books about him today.
Steve Wilcox is an Anglican vicar in West Hull.
